Introduction to
Thematic Coding

The basic purpose of thematic coding (or "tagging")
is data retrieval. It is used to classify text according to
theme, so that later on, when doing analysis, it easy to retrieve
all passages that relate to a given topic. The essence of
thematic coding is classification. Consider, for example, the
following passage:

TEXT:

CODES:

Mixing millennialism, space
beliefs and cult charisma can result in a deadly brew, as
illustrated by this years Heavens Gate
suicides. Forty people took their lives in the belief
that shedding their earthly containers would enable them
to board an alien rescue craft headed for the Next
Level of existence.

cult

suicide

religion

ufo

spiritual beliefs

transformation

The first two codes, <cult> and <suicide> are also
words contained in the text. The remaining codes are
interpretations of what the paragraph is about. This
illustrations both the power and the danger of codes. If we were
to rely solely on the presence of key words in text to identify
relevant passages, we would often miss important material because
an informant can spend quite a bit of time talking about, say,
marriage, without ever mentioning the word. By coding texts, we
make sure that we can retrieve all the relevant texts.

The danger, of course, is that our interpretations may be
wrong, idiosyncratic, or otherwise not useful. For example, I
coded the passage as <transformation> because I saw the
idea of committing suicide so that as to enter another level of
existence as an instance of transformation. However, the author
of the passage might not have seen it that way.

This issue brings up to important questions about thematic
coding. First, how will we be using the information? In most
cases, thematic codes are used for data retrieval. For example,
an anthropologist goes out in the field for 9 months and returns
with thousands of pages of field notes. In order to pull together
a coherent view of some aspect of life in the village studied,
she would like to find all passages in her notes which relate to
certain themes. So she codes all the text, then uses a computer
to pull together all passages related to any given theme. In this
case, the problem of reading too much into a passage when coding,
or miscoding entirely, is not very serious. Because of coding
errors, she may miss certain passages that should have been
relevant, and she may include some passages that are really not
relevant. However, the passages are really just stimuli for
thinking. They are not measurements or data. Any errors she makes
because certain passages were omitted or misinterpreted are
errors she could have made with our without the coding. Any
problems with coding pale before the enormous problems of
interpreting culture and social behavior!

Sometimes, however, thematic codes are

The second key question is whether our objective is to code
emically or etically. To code etically means that we judge what a
paragraph relates to according to our own criteria. To code
emically means that we judge the topic of a passage according to
what the informant (the author) himself believes the topic is.
Consider the following passage:

TEXT:

CODES:

I feel like my work is
taking over my life, you know? Even when I don't stay
late, I come home tired and don't feel like doing
anything, or I can't stop thinking about what's happening
[in the office].

work

dissatisfaction

managing boundaries

The code <managing boundaries> is, more than likely, an
etic code. The informant probably does not think in such abstract
terms. Rather, the concept of managing boundaries is an element
from the researcher's culture. This does not make the attribution
less valid, as long as we understand that it is not intended as a
representation of what the informant was trying to say.

In contrast, the code <dissatisfaction> is plausibly an
emic code. It seems likely that the informant himself would agree
that in this passage, he was intending to express
dissatisfaction. Note that even if a code is emic, it is always
inferred. We can be wrong when we assign emic codes. What
distinguishes an emic code from an etic one is the intention to
capture the informants' statements from the informants' point of
view -- using categories that the informant himself would use.